UNITED
NATIONS,
January 31 --
The new draft
resolution on
Syria,
obtained by
Inner City
Press along
with the track
changes,
insertions and
deletions in
the margin,
shows the
impact on the
draft of the
Arab
League
canceling its
observer
mission in
Syria.

In
the run up to
the arrival of
ministers at
the UN for
today's
Security
Council
meeting on
Syria, on
Monday night
the 15 Council
members met
until 9
pm at what's
called the
experts'
level.

Inner
City Press
staked-out the
meeting and
exclusively
live-tweeted
it, and
separately
spoke with
more senior
diplomats at
the members'
Mission
to the UN, one
of whom
laughed when
asked if the
changes were
attributable
to Morocco,
which
ostensibly
drafted and
circulated the
resolution and
chair Monday
night's
meeting.

"Morocco's
just a
straw man
here," the
senior Council
diplomat told
Inner City
Press.

The
tracked
changes in the
margin each
bear the
electronic
signature of
Reza Afshar --
the "First
Secretary
(Political) at
the UK
Mission" to
the UN.

In
PP6, inserted
is "commending
[the LAS]
efforts,
regretting
that, due to
the
escalation in
violence, the
observer
mission was
not in a
position to
monitor the
full
implementation
of the League
of Arab States
Action
Plan of 2
November 2011,
and noting the
subsequent
decision of
the
League of Arab
states [sic]
to suspend the
mission."

There
are
questions
about how and
by whom this
decision was
made.

Lavrov and
Hillary
Clinton, track
changes not
shown

In OP8 there
is added, "in
the event of a
resumption of
the observer
mission,
and in OP16
the the adverb
"actively" is
added to
"remain....
seized of the
matter."

The
ministers are
coming, and
what one wag
on Monday
dubbed the
Syria
Superbowl is
about to
begin. Watch
this site.